The Gimp 1.3.x developer versions were a good preview of Gimp 2.0. We have an overview of the Gimp article and three Gimp tutorials based on Gimp 1.3. These Gimp articles should give you a pretty good feel of the Gimp 2.0.

Here is a list of some Konqueror Web-browser features from the Konqueror developers.

Web Browser

Features of the HTML rendering component in KDE:

HTML 4.0 compliance (except for some very minor details).

ECMAscript 262 support (JavaScript). We estimate that 90% of the web\'s script work with Konqueror. A few bindings to connect ECMAscript and HTML are still missing to make the rest work, too.

Ability to house Java applets.

Cascading Style Sheets:

CSS1: supported

CSS2: mostly implemented . . .

DOM1, DOM2 and partially DOM3 support in ECMAScript and native C++ bindings.

Full support for bidirectional scripts (arabic and hebrew). . . . [Sic]

SSL support (requires OpenSSL).

[Konqueror Web site: Web Browser Features.]

Konqueror File Manager Features

Here is a list of some Konqueror file-manager features from the Konqueror developers. Don't forget that Konqueror combines file-management and Web-browsing all in one application. Thus, Konqueror can use the Web browser features when you are doing file management -- and the file management features when you are doing Web surfing.

File Manager

It displays files and directories using the "icon view" (three icon sizes) or the "tree view" (detailed view in which you can open sub-directories)

It allows copying, moving and deleting, by direct drag and drop or by using copy, cut and paste.

It provides properties on a file, to see and change its attributes in a dialog box. . . .

Konqueror . . . it provides automatic updating of directories - if a file is created in a directory which is currently being viewed, it is not necessary to refresh or reload the directory; Konqueror automatically shows the new content. The same situation occurs with files which [sic] have been deleted - they simply disappear, without any refreshing/reloading necessary.

[Konqueror Web site: File Manager Features.

Universal Viewer Features

Another powerful Konqueror feature is its Universal Viewer.

Konqueror can also serve as a viewer for a lot of file types. Click on an image and it will display the image in the current view. Click on a text file, it will show its contents. Same for postscript and DVI files, KOffice files, and others. [Konqueror Web site: Universal Viewer Features.]

In our experience with the Konqueror viewer it does not always view the file within Konqueror. Often it opens the file in an external-to-Konqueror application that can display the file. Please see for example Bug 62442: konqueror does not open README file in embedded viewer. [sic]

This appears to be intentional. Text and text-based files are editable when opened in an editing-capable application but not when opened in a file viewer. So, by default Konqueror will open a text or text-based file in an appropriate editing application.

However, you can use the context menu to force the file to be opened in the embedded viewer rather than a separate application. Or, you can make adjustments by changing some file association settings.

In an e-mail discussion about Konqueror with KDE developer David Faure, he mentioned that:

The part fact that "clicking on a README doesn't open it embedded in Konqueror" is intentional. Too many people want to actually edit text files, not just view them.

The default has been changed some time ago to

* Embed images by default

* Open the rest externally

However, in order to view a file embedded into Konqueror, you can

1) use the right-mouse-button menu and choose "Preview In", or

2) go to "Configure Konqueror / File Associations" and change the setting for a given type of file (mime type) using the radio buttons in the Embedding tab.

Figure 3. KDE Konqueror in File Manager mode. This screenshot was made using The Gimp while the Konqueror Web browser was running on Mandrake Linux 10.1. File directories (folders) are displayed in the (optional) left sidebar. The files and sub-directories in the selected directory are displayed in the file name panel to the right of the sidebar. Two file name panel-tabs are shown just above the file name panel shown.

The Konqueror Tool Kit

Konqueror has some pretty handy tools too. Figure 4 shows the Konqueror Tools menu dropped down. Figure 4 is how the Tools menu looks when Konqueror is in browser mode. The names of the tools in the menu list are pretty much self-explanatory.

A particularly handy tool is the language translation tool. Unfortunately, it did not work in our tests. It needs some polish. Please see Bug 92110: translation looks for undefined environment variable $host for more information about the problem.

Bug 92110 is marked as Resolved. However, we encountered this problem in both SUSE 9.2 Professional (KDE 3.3 and Konqueror 3.3) and Mandrake 10.1 PowerPack+ (KDE 3.23 and Konqueror 3.23).

Figure 4. The KDE Konqueror Tools menu dropped. Here, the Chinese to English language translation tool is selected. This screenshot was made using The Gimp while the Konqueror Web browser was running on SUSE Linux 9.2.

Overall Evaluation of KDE Konqueror

All in all, Konqueror is an excellent Web browser and file manager. It's chock full of neat and handy features. And it just keeps getting better and better with each new release. We believe it is the best of the browsers and therefore we have decided to give KDE's Konqueror Web browser and file manager, version 3.3, the MozillaQuest Magazine Editor's Choice Award.

KDE's Konqueror Web browser and file manager is free. It comes with most GNU-Linux distributions as part of the KDE group of packages. So, if you are a Linux user and already have Konqueror installed give it a try if you already have not done so.

If Konqueror 3.3 did not come with your Linux distribution, download it and give it a try -- it's free.

If you are a Microsoft Windows user, you are out of luck for now. Konqueror is not for the MS Windows operating system.

However, in an e-mail discussion about Konqueror with KDE developer George Staikos, he mentioned that Konqueror for Windows is presently a "work in progress". There are people actively working on porting KDE libraries to Windows, and once that's done, porting Konqueror will certainly be a popular project.

Note: Since Dual-Boot Linux & Windows to Get the Best of Both Operating System Worlds, was published, we have changed our recommended GNU-Linux distributions to Mandrake Linux and SUSE Linux. There are links to Mandrake and SUSE and to their download sites in the Resources section at the end of this article.

Because the KDE Konqueror Web-browser and file-manager is free, feature rich, works well, and works well with Linux, it provides a particularly notable bang for the buck. Thus, the KDE Konqueror Web-browser and file-manager gets a MozillaQuest Magazine Editor's Choice Award.